Thailand Cave Rescue Underway, Four Saved So Far

Thailand Cave Rescue Underway, Four Saved So Far

The rescue mission is going smoothly so far, but the rest of the team will have to wait.

Four of the Thai soccer players trapped in a flooded cave for more than two weeks were rescued on Sunday.

According to a report by the BBC, the operation to rescue the remaining nine people will be postponed until tomorrow as divers replenish their supplies and prepare for the next extraction, which should take 10 to 20 hours. The mission, which involves about 90 expert divers in total, is to continue on Monday morning.

Head of Thai rescue operation says only four boys brought all the way out of the cave so far and taken to hospital. About 10 hours needed to prepare for next operation. pic.twitter.com/JjnF3nGZe2

The four boys are members of the Wild Boars team, aged between 11 and 16, who ventured deep into the Tham Luang cave with their 25-year-old coach on June 23. The group was missing for nine days until they were found by two British divers huddled inside the cave.

“After 16 days of waiting, we get to see the faces of the Wild Boars,” Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn said. Narongsak did not comment on the health of the rescued boys but did say that the extraction went better than expected.

The team and their coach were trapped after hiking more than two miles into the cave after soccer practice. Heavy rain began to fall and flood the area and their way back.

The rescue involves navigating through the Tham Luang cave’s complex and relatively unexplored passages. Rescuers are also having to race against the rain as the rainy season had just begun, making it clear that the flooding that originally trapped the boys will only get worse in the coming days.

Desperate attempts have been made to pump water out of the cave, but Narongsak said that the water levels inside were at their lowest levels so far. “There is no other day that we are more ready than today,” Narongsak said.